Reunion (Final) “You fucked up big time Roen, they’re MPD,” Ray shouted from several yards away, the sound of the siren blasting in the immediate area was almost deafening, “Now they’ve got the whole area pinned down under their scopes.” The situation, dire as it seemed, was negotiable. In Roen’s mind there were almost always a series of options to pick from; the trick was maintaining a good level of clarity to choose the best options. Telling Ray to put a bullet through the sniper’s head was one of those “lack of clarity” moments. Then again, when Audra and he were distracting the guy on the tower, the MPD didn’t hesitate to shoot at two people who were unarmed and just waving their arms in the air. These weren’t normal cops. Roen gave Ray his response. “New plan then! We circumvent the tower; maybe we’ll find an officer who’ll talk before he shoots. If not, we’ll just keep on going towards the Art Museum,” Audra, a few feet away from Roen, was peering through the small crack in the rubble she was hiding under, looking up at the occupied building. Roen watched as she turned to him and nodded in agreement. He called to Ray again, “Well, what’s it going to be?” “You two go on ahead, I’ll try and take out a few more. Besides, I find bullets talk much better than words.” Audra scolded him. “Don’t be stupid, you don’t have any idea how many people the MPD have in there! They’ll tear you a-.” Roen stopped her, speaking softer than before. “He’s made up his mind. If he’s able to catch up with us, then he will. If not, then he’ll have died without many regrets…I hope.” He pulled Audra up and they began running through the building’s wrecked interior, northwards. Audra looked back over her shoulder to see Ray in a kneeling position, prepping two of his guns. She spoke. “This doesn’t feel right, we can’t just leave him.” “No, it isn’t, but I’m not going to die, I’m not going to let you die, because of some guy who isn’t entirely right in the head,” Roen argued as they continued to run, “I understand what it means to save lives, but thoughtless, suicidal shootouts with the MPD is not what comes to mind when I think of a noble sacrifice.” “Then why did you have him shoot that sniper in the first place? That doesn-.” He stopped running; they had reached the next street. “I panicked. What more can I say? That I thought the Curators had locked a radius around the museum? That I figured if we didn’t take him out soon enough that one of their bullets might have found one of us? Did I make a mistake or didn’t I? They may have started firing at us anyways, I don’t know. This mission, it’s beginning to feel like we’re-.” Several gunshots sounded off nearby, but as Roen quickly noticed, the sound didn’t come from the side of the tower that was facing in Ray’s direction. “What’s happening?” Audra tried to see what was happening through the canopy of metal scrap, but Roen motioned for her to get down as he crept closer to an opening in the destroyed building. He explained what was happening. “They were shooting at something else. It’s possible we’re not the only ones passing through.” As he continued to watch Audra crawled up alongside him, looking down at the road they had previously been on. She saw movement. “Roen, look.” Roen squinted a bit before noticing a group of officers exit the building. They were headed towards the bridge they had crossed early. Ray was about to have company. “You don’t think he’ll fight them, do you?” Audra looked up at him, fear present in her expression. Roen wanted to believe Ray would be sensible, especially now that he was about to be actively engaged. “If he surrenders he’s dead, if he fights he’s dead. His only option is to run, and if he doesn’t get going soon he-,” One of the officers in their approaching formation suddenly took a fall backwards, and the rest opened fire in retaliation, “Shit.” Audra screamed. Roen, as quickly as possible, covered her mouth with his hand. Shaking his head pleadingly; this was Raymond’s choice. Audra yanked his hand off and crawled back into the ruined structure. Roen followed until it was safe to stand up. “What are you doing?” “We have to help him!” “Are you daft?! That whole platoon is after him and chances are when they’re done with him they’ll make a sweep to find anyone else. We need to move. If we can-.” An unfamiliar voice called out to them. “HEY! Over here!” The two briefly flailed around checking for any signs of movement. Roen pointed to the block adjacent to them. “Over there!” Sure enough, there was a young, African, woman waving in the rubble to get their attention. Next to her stood a very familiar figure; Bees. Roen and Audra’s faces lit up briefly before they looked at each other, and then darted across the road as fast as they could. No bullets whizzed by. They had made it unnoticed. “Bees what the hell are you doing here,” Audra dropped on their now reunited teammate, “We were completely bugging out about you.” It sounded like she was on the verge of crying, but she didn’t have time. Across the way they had come, Ray was sprinting through the rubble and towards them. Roen groaned. “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me!” Not much later shotgun projectiles shot out from a distance behind him, flying by the group’s position. Ray was now running across the street and the people in the tower began to open fire. Roen looked for their dark-skinned savior and saw that she was beginning to disappear into the rubble, climbing thorough a hidden exit. He yelled to the rest. “Let’s move!” Bees, Audra, and close at their heels, Ray, followed after Roen while trying to keep up with their unnamed guide. He shouted at her. “Where are we going?!” She looked back only for a moment. “We’re going to disappear.” We ran for what seemed like half an hour. Our guide knew her way around well, very well in fact. She was making a fool out of me. Eventually we reached a hidden alcove underneath a pile of rubble. Our group had stopped moving. “This is as far as I take you. The soldiers won’t follow you out this far.” This was it. I was a bit envious before. She pulled us from that dire situation with ease while for moment I thought I was going to lose it. However, my envy has since been smothered by gratitude. Mother taught me to treat women with respect. She had earned mine. “Thank you Miss…?” “Avalon, Avalon Honeypie. I hope you all stay safe from now on. Things are about to get even nastier around here.” I nodded in agreement, she knew what was coming. The Keepers of the Flame and the Curators, despite them being rather enigmatic organizations, were not going to be subtle in confrontation. Throw the MPD into the mix and “Rivertown” becomes a battlefield. “Now just hold on a second there, we want some information, and you’re not going anywhere until you ans-,” Ray moved to pursue Avalon as she began to climb out of the enclave we were currently hiding in. When his hand came within reach of her leg, something inside of me snapped. Throughout this whole ordeal I’ve tried to get our team to develop some group synergy. Ray has been the opposing force in my attempt to do this. He walks off with random women, gets shot, shoots himself, and thinks every problem should be solved by pointing a gun at someone. I quickly place a single hand across his face and shoved him back. He stumbled back; he’d hate me for that, and you know what? Maybe I didn’t care. He was shouting. “What the hell was that for Roen? She could have given us more information!” Typical, I thought, it’s always an agenda with him. I wanted to pry his loony mind, figure out which horrible person shoved a pipe so far up his bum that it made him this way. “How about a goddamn ‘thank you’? If you didn’t notice, she just saved all of our asses. Show a bit more respect, Avalon doesn’t owe you anything!” Bees and Audra looked worried; we probably looked like we were about to come to blows. “Guys, this isn’t the time to arguing over someone who’s already gone. We should-.” Bees took a step back. Ray had turned his anger on her. “And where the hell were you? Franz Draco gave us some interesting information about you Rabies. You’re a Curator, one of the enemy,” he whipped out one his guns and was pointing it at her, “say it; tell us all what you’re really up to Rabies. So that none of us will have any regrets after I kill you.”
Reunion (Final)“You fucked up big time Roen, they’re MPD,” Ray shouted from several yards away, the sound of the siren blasting in the immediate area was almost deafening, “Now they’ve got the whole area pinned down under their scopes.” The situation, dire as it seemed, was negotiable. In Roen’s mind there were almost always a series of options to pick from; the trick was maintaining a good level of clarity to choose the best options. Telling Ray to put a bullet through the sniper’s head was one of those “lack of clarity” moments. Then again, when Audra and he were distracting the guy on the tower, the MPD didn’t hesitate to shoot at two people who were unarmed and just waving their arms in the air. These weren’t normal cops.
Roen gave Ray his response. “New plan then! We circumvent the tower; maybe we’ll find an officer who’ll talk before he shoots. If not, we’ll just keep on going towards the Art Museum,” Audra, a few feet away from Roen, was peering through the small crack in the rubble she was hiding under, looking up at the occupied building. Roen watched as she turned to him and nodded in agreement. He called to Ray again, “Well, what’s it going to be?”
“You two go on ahead, I’ll try and take out a few more. Besides, I find bullets talk much better than words.”
Audra scolded him. “Don’t be stupid, you don’t have any idea how many people the MPD have in there! They’ll tear you a-.”
Roen stopped her, speaking softer than before. “He’s made up his mind. If he’s able to catch up with us, then he will. If not, then he’ll have died without many regrets…I hope.” He pulled Audra up and they began running through the building’s wrecked interior, northwards. Audra looked back over her shoulder to see Ray in a kneeling position, prepping two of his guns.
She spoke. “This doesn’t feel right, we can’t just leave him.”
“No, it isn’t, but I’m not going to die, I’m not going to let you die, because of some guy who isn’t entirely right in the head,” Roen argued as they continued to run, “I understand what it means to save lives, but thoughtless, suicidal shootouts with the MPD is not what comes to mind when I think of a noble sacrifice.”
“Then why did you have him shoot that sniper in the first place? That doesn-.”
He stopped running; they had reached the next street. “I panicked. What more can I say? That I thought the Curators had locked a radius around the museum? That I figured if we didn’t take him out soon enough that one of their bullets might have found one of us? Did I make a mistake or didn’t I? They may have started firing at us anyways, I don’t know. This mission, it’s beginning to feel like we’re-.” Several gunshots sounded off nearby, but as Roen quickly noticed, the sound didn’t come from the side of the tower that was facing in Ray’s direction.
“What’s happening?” Audra tried to see what was happening through the canopy of metal scrap, but Roen motioned for her to get down as he crept closer to an opening in the destroyed building.
He explained what was happening. “They were shooting at something else. It’s possible we’re not the only ones passing through.” As he continued to watch Audra crawled up alongside him, looking down at the road they had previously been on.
She saw movement. “Roen, look.” Roen squinted a bit before noticing a group of officers exit the building. They were headed towards the bridge they had crossed early. Ray was about to have company.
“You don’t think he’ll fight them, do you?” Audra looked up at him, fear present in her expression. Roen wanted to believe Ray would be sensible, especially now that he was about to be actively engaged.
“If he surrenders he’s dead, if he fights he’s dead. His only option is to run, and if he doesn’t get going soon he-,” One of the officers in their approaching formation suddenly took a fall backwards, and the rest opened fire in retaliation, “Shit.”
Audra screamed. Roen, as quickly as possible, covered her mouth with his hand. Shaking his head pleadingly; this was Raymond’s choice. Audra yanked his hand off and crawled back into the ruined structure.
Roen followed until it was safe to stand up. “What are you doing?”
“We have to help him!”
“Are you daft?! That whole platoon is after him and chances are when they’re done with him they’ll make a sweep to find anyone else. We need to move. If we can-.”
An unfamiliar voice called out to them. “HEY! Over here!” The two briefly flailed around checking for any signs of movement.
Roen pointed to the block adjacent to them. “Over there!” Sure enough, there was a young, African, woman waving in the rubble to get their attention. Next to her stood a very familiar figure; Bees. Roen and Audra’s faces lit up briefly before they looked at each other, and then darted across the road as fast as they could. No bullets whizzed by. They had made it unnoticed.
“Bees what the hell are you doing here,” Audra dropped on their now reunited teammate, “We were completely bugging out about you.” It sounded like she was on the verge of crying, but she didn’t have time. Across the way they had come, Ray was sprinting through the rubble and towards them.
Roen groaned. “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me!” Not much later shotgun projectiles shot out from a distance behind him, flying by the group’s position. Ray was now running across the street and the people in the tower began to open fire. Roen looked for their dark-skinned savior and saw that she was beginning to disappear into the rubble, climbing thorough a hidden exit.
He yelled to the rest. “Let’s move!” Bees, Audra, and close at their heels, Ray, followed after Roen while trying to keep up with their unnamed guide.
He shouted at her. “Where are we going?!”
She looked back only for a moment. “We’re going to disappear.”
We ran for what seemed like half an hour. Our guide knew her way around well, very well in fact. She was making a fool out of me. Eventually we reached a hidden alcove underneath a pile of rubble. Our group had stopped moving.
“This is as far as I take you. The soldiers won’t follow you out this far.”
This was it. I was a bit envious before. She pulled us from that dire situation with ease while for moment I thought I was going to lose it. However, my envy has since been smothered by gratitude. Mother taught me to treat women with respect. She had earned mine.
“Thank you Miss…?”
“Avalon, Avalon Honeypie. I hope you all stay safe from now on. Things are about to get even nastier around here.” I nodded in agreement, she knew what was coming. The Keepers of the Flame and the Curators, despite them being rather enigmatic organizations, were not going to be subtle in confrontation. Throw the MPD into the mix and “Rivertown” becomes a battlefield.
“Now just hold on a second there, we want some information, and you’re not going anywhere until you ans-,” Ray moved to pursue Avalon as she began to climb out of the enclave we were currently hiding in. When his hand came within reach of her leg, something inside of me snapped. Throughout this whole ordeal I’ve tried to get our team to develop some group synergy. Ray has been the opposing force in my attempt to do this. He walks off with random women, gets shot, shoots himself, and thinks every problem should be solved by pointing a gun at someone. I quickly place a single hand across his face and shoved him back. He stumbled back; he’d hate me for that, and you know what? Maybe I didn’t care.
He was shouting. “What the hell was that for Roen? She could have given us more information!” Typical, I thought, it’s always an agenda with him. I wanted to pry his loony mind, figure out which horrible person shoved a pipe so far up his bum that it made him this way.
“How about a goddamn ‘thank you’? If you didn’t notice, she just saved all of our asses. Show a bit more respect, Avalon doesn’t owe you anything!” Bees and Audra looked worried; we probably looked like we were about to come to blows.
“Guys, this isn’t the time to arguing over someone who’s already gone. We should-.” Bees took a step back.
Ray had turned his anger on her. “And where the hell were you? Franz Draco gave us some interesting information about you Rabies. You’re a Curator, one of the enemy,” he whipped out one his guns and was pointing it at her, “say it; tell us all what you’re really up to Rabies. So that none of us will have any regrets after I kill you.”